(17 Apr 1999) English/Nat
Some 800 demonstrators marched through the streets of New York City on Saturday as part of an international day of protest to stop NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia.
The anti-U-S and NATO demonstration was attended mostly by Serbian-Americans.
An ethnic Albanian counter-rally of some 50 people protested across the street.
SUGGESTED VOICE-OVER
As NATO proceeds into its fourth week of bombing Serbian military targets in Yugoslavia, hundreds of people marched the streets of New York City in protest.
The demonstration began at Grand Central Station and proceeded past the United Nations to a number of missions and consulates of NATO member countries.
Most of the marchers were Serbian-Americans. They carried or wore "NATO Target" signs.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is a day of international coordinated protest, in more than one hundred cities around the world. This is a movement that from the very first day of the bombing erupted. It's sort of like a fast forward of everything that happened during the Vietnam war."
SUPER CAPTION: Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center
Archmendri Nikolas Dimitrijevich of the Serbian Orthodox Church travelled from North Carolina to take part in the demonstrations. He's a fourth-generation Serbian-American.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's not a video game, these people are not going to jump back up and make a score and fight again. In the end, no one will know who started the war and there will simply be widows and orphans, and mothers without sons, and husbands.
SUPER CAPTION; Archmendri Nikolas Dimitrijevich, Serbian Orthodox Church in North Carolina, USA
Albanian-Americans, who mostly support the NATO airstrikes, staged a counter-protest across the street.
Meanwhile, a new poll has found most Americans want to focus on a diplomatic solution in Kosovo.
Fifty-two percent of those in the Newsweek survey say stepped-up efforts at negotiations should be the top priority for NATO and the United States.
About 20 per cent say the priority should be increasing the air campaign. And only 12 per cent favor launching a ground war.
Still, most in the poll want to continue air strikes until Yugoslavia meets all demands. And most would favor sending ground troops if all else fails.
President Clinton's handling of the situation gets majority approval -- 56 percent.
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